Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Victor the Contractor: The Democrat Party Has Just Been Raided!

By Victor the Contractor

Can you hear the earth rumbling underfoot? A change is coming, and it will do away with 'Change you can believe in,' and leave more than change in your pocket. A lot of people in this country are fed up with the course the Democrat-controlled Legislature was plotting and the past few elections have sent a shot across the bow of Liberals and their 'Progressive Agenda.'

The victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts last night was the latest warning of the coming Republican tsunami that will wash out the Marxists for the next generation in both Houses of Congress. I'm calling for a change of leadership in the House and Senate and the immediate realization that President Obama is a one-termer, a sort of Carter Presidency redux. Before you rain on my parade and say that the Democrat agenda is still in the works -- and some of it can be forced through in the next ten days -- be advised that above even their Communist plans for this country the Democrats love power. And to keep any kind of power they need to be reelected periodically.

Having failed to set up the National Health Care Consortium that would serve as a revolving door through which failed politicians would recycle back onto bureaucratic payrolls (and control about a sixth of the economy), the Democrats are forced to stay in power the old fashioned way; by running for reelection. Their plans for a 'United Socialist American Republic' have once again been thwarted by an electorate that refused to sustain the momentum of the government's rush toward a totalitarian state. It seem that most Americans are not sweet on the idea of paying for illegal aliens to go to American schools and doctors. One need only examine the de facto bankruptcy of California to realize the inevitable results of government-run health care and overly generous welfare programs.

We have a country that is solidly center-right in its political bent. The Obama election was an understandable aberration in that it was based upon a suddenly ailing economy and a vitriolic press exacerbating the problems. With a bad recession, the party in power always gets tossed out. Simple as that. The lessons some took from the election were that the country had swung permanently left and that a European style of socialism was now possible because most people had realized that they were responsible for their fellow citizens' needs. From there it was a short hop to health care being a Constitutional right. And then to a proposed wealth transfer -- using Cap-and-Trade -- to countries with failed economies over guilt for our success as an industrialized nation. To me it makes little sense but then I'm not a rabidly liberal member of the normally socialist press, am I?

Well, the voters have spoken a third time and it resonates on a national level. With a Scott Brown Senate win in Massachusetts, Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell in the Governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia respectively, the country is forewarned of an unmistakable shift from a silent tolerance of the liberalism in Washington to repudiation of all things socialist and maybe even an overcompensation to the right in the coming November elections.

There is an epidemic of Democrat cold sweat breaking out nationwide and it can only mean a shift to the right politically if there is even a hope of reelection for some of these characters. And while the White House downplays a growing list of election losses and the press decries the electorate as superstitious and stupid for 'clinging the their guns and bibles', the mainstream Democrats are quietly retooling their platform to focus on jobs and the economy. Health care, Cap-and-Trade and the 'Card Check' travesty are crosses to be now carried only by liberals who intend to fall on their swords in November.

I am also noting a curious behavior only engaged in by Democrats and the commentators who subsist on the party swill: they destroy their losers. It started last week with a report that Barney Frank blamed the Senate loss on Ms. Coakely; this being at a campaign rally days before the election. Commentators are also falling back on the tired, lame explanation that the Democrats didn't get their message out effectively enough and didn't frame the issues. This couldn't be further from the truth: the Democrats and liberal press have not only framed the debate but declared it "settled" on numerous subjects when it served their purposes. Others blame 'angry voters' or fear-mongering as reasons the Democrats lost. Suffice it to say that we'll never hear from the losing contestants again. No one blacklists like the Democrats. Maybe they will become commentators who resurface during election cycles, but not any in the foreseeable future.

I am interested to see who will press harder to further the liberal agenda before all the air is let out of the balloon, so to speak. I think its over for all but a vestigial health care bill that tinkers with the existing system in some trivial way so the administration can declare a Pyrrhic victory. Even that will require major negotiations with Republicans and the Democrats are currently loathe to stoop to that level.

The Democrats' influence is going to go into decline and a new conservative mood will permeate government. A couple of things will force Washington's hand. First, we are all aware that the borrowing engaged in by the Obama Administration has nearly bankrupted the country and that our lender nations are already making noises about the wisdom of our expenditures. Let China pass on one bond auction and we'll see how 'prosperous' we are. It will cause a depression in about five minutes. That's because all credit is extended on the assumption of eventual payback with interest and China refusing to buy our notes will signal a loss of confidence in our credit-worthiness. A collapse of the markets would soon follow. Think 1929; then 1931.

Second, even if we are able to make payments indefinitely, of which I'm not entirely convinced, the interest alone will consuming so much of the budget that spending growth is out of the question. We simply have to cut back on spending, and in some cases it will be rather draconian.

Whether it be by Republican or Democrat leadership, we were due to lower spending as a condition of economic survival. And I know that the Democrats wanted to destroy the economy so they could remake it in Stalin's own image but we would probably go into a kind of 'economic receivership' before that happened. Even if it did, the Government of China is not a bottomless source of funding. Spending cuts were on the horizon by necessity. And simply raising taxes to fund projects results in less revenue as people and companies progressively shield income from scrutiny.

I want to see how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid react in the coming weeks to the election results and change in mood of the elected officials across the country. No longer can they ignore public opinion or turn a blind eye to the coming elections. But I really want to know if they will continue to ram through some type of nationalization of the health care system (and probably fail in the process) or back off and suddenly change their focus to the economy. The wise thing to do would be to regroup and wait out a few election cycles; but I feel the temptation is too great not to try to get the assorted bills to the White House and sacrifice both House majorities to do so. After all, this is what the Leftists in Congress have salivating over for a generation. If they can't pass health care, Cap-and-Trade and Card Check now, they will die before the Democrats again have the needed majorities to do so. So they have ten days: lets see what they do.

Alternately, we have to live now with the fallout of letting a spendthrift government control our collective destiny. Somebody's got to pay down this debt. And that falls to us. For all revenue derived by the government comes from the American people. Even if we could stop the growth of Government, and we are not even close to doing that yet, we have to pay interest on some 12.3 trillion dollars and somehow pay that down. We pay it down by borrowing less. I'm not advocating for a total cessation of borrowing because that would cause a governmental shutdown as we ran out of money to pay our bills -- but we need to cut spending drastically. And again, that's where the Democrats come in.

There will be a fight for the heart and soul of the Democrat party during the coming months. Moderate Democrats, who know all too well the mood of the country, will try to 'mainstream' the platform of the party to the center and stress the economy and jobs. They know that the old maxim, 'its the economy, stupid,' dominates politics during periods of high unemployment. Trying to avoid the problem would result in their bodies getting thrown under the bus at election time. Alternately, the far left liberals, who should be known as Communists were the truth-in-advertising laws enforced, know this is the last gasp for another generation. It really is the last time the sixties radical washouts will have almost total control of the levers of power, and it looks like they have about ten days left. After that they know they will have diminishing influence on policy and have to engage in public discourse to change attitudes. And they are never good at that sort of thing when serious issues dominate the discussion. Who cares about global warming, climate Change or whatever they are calling the climactic disaster du jour -- when funding college tuition or unemployment is the major topic of conversation at the dinner table?

Liberals who spout off about the poor in Africa miss the point when our children may not get to go to college. They sound like whining children to an under- or unemployed steel worker. Who really cares about the coming climate disaster when your company is downsizing because they couldn't sell enough product to justify their payroll? Some moderate Democrats understand the lessons the Republicans learned when they took a good flogging last year in the election: a voter's family comes first. It comes first over the political aims of either party; all politics are local and the issue becomes personal during a recession.

The Democrats have to sort out what manner of party they are, now that their agenda has been completely rejected by the voters. And this is only a prelude to November. True socialist believers will continue to demand a Euro-American model, knowing they are doomed to failure. Moderate Democrats will have to distance themselves from the party in the short term while they battle behind the scenes for control. Republicans will gradually meander more to the right as they seek to differentiate themselves from Democrats who have just 'found religion.' This will be enjoyable to watch, especially as the Communist News Network and the Liberal Mass media grow more dour as the election approaches. Their Party is over, at least as they know it.

But we have to do something to rescue our economy from a possible disaster: this hyper-spending must stop. We must return to a work ethic that stresses enthusiastic effort and not manipulation of some other person's productivity. A re-adoption of self-reliance and can-do spirit in the vein of Ronald Reagan is in order. And I know just the ticket to stir up some good ole' American controversy: Sarah Palin and Scott Brown. Who more to humble the 'Entitlement Party' then two self-made successes?